The truth is, you don’t need anything to meditate. Meditation is a mental state you achieve by focusing, becoming aware, and losing sense of the world around you.
Meditating in the middle of a busy city center is as possible as meditating ontop of an isolated mountain. You don’t need peace and quiet, essential oils, or the right soundtrack. All that is required for meditation is you, your breath, and your mind.
You can meditate standing up or sitting down. You can meditate being still or when you’re in a meditative activity like running, or creating art, or making music.
Meditation is that state you reach when everything else disappears and you are completely in tune with your mind, your breath, and your body.
It’s Easier Said Than Done.
Starting a meditation practice is easier said than done. Of course, some will come to it naturally. Most others will experience fidgeting, distraction, and even stress. Here are a few essential components to starting a meditation practice.
It Is A Mindset
- A Quiet Place: Starting to tune into your mind is going to provide you with enough distraction. Removing the distracting elements from your surroundings will help you to focus only what is going on in your mind and body.
- A Comfortable Position: If you can’t sit in a cross legged, lotus position, that’s okay. It’s not required. You can lay down or find a comfortable seated position for meditation. Laying down is always a risky move, because all the deep breathing can put you quick to sleep. Falling asleep during meditation is common in the beginning. Finding a seated position will help you be comfortable and relaxed while also stay awake.
- A Couple Deep Breaths: For meditation, you want to breathe from the bottom up, slowly filling the lungs. To exhale, release the air from the top down and repeat. Taking deep breaths helps your body relax and your mind start to quiet.
- A Non-Judgmental Attitude: Meditation wouldn’t be as relaxing, centering, and healing as it is if it included criticism, judgment, and hatred toward the self. The brain wouldn’t react well at all. Meditation focuses on non-judgment, self-compassion and self-kindness.
- A Guided Meditation: There are different ways to meditate. Beginners find it helpful to start by doing a body scan, noticing tension in their body and letting it go. Then, they can notice what is going on in their minds and let that go as well. A guided meditation can create the foundation for meditating on your own or getting an extra boost of serenity when you need it the most.
Meditation has been scientifically proven to reduce symptoms of stress, depression, anxiety, the the effects of detox from drugs and alcohol. Lakehouse Recovery Center utilizes meditation and a variety of proven treatment methods to create an integrative residential treatment program. For more information on how we’re showing clients how to have fun in recovery, call us today at (877) 762-3707.